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Poor planning, an ageing population and ill-conceived protection walls contributed to the devastation caused by last year's tsunami in Japan, a University of Canterbury (UC) researcher has found.

Chris Gomez said inadequate engineering and ineffective evacuation plans were some of the reasons 20,000 people perished in the tsunami.

"In villages the main escape roads followed the river, which the tsunami followed as well."

The lecturer said having assembly areas at schools located by the coast, ill-conceived protection walls and an inadequate evacuation plan that did not take into account the ageing population contributed to the disaster.